Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Marking György Kurtág’s 100th birthday, Elena Schwarz and Víkingur Ólafsson led a programme of hushed intensity and fleeting ferocity During this celebration of the 100th birthday of György Kurtág , a composer associated above all with what the concert’s presenter Tom Service called “intense quiet”, the occasional louder moments were breathtaking. There was a phrase in Víkingur Ólafsson ’s piano arrangement of Bach’s Air on the G String that briefly bared its own musculature, as tenderly firm as a parent lifting a baby. There were a few snatched, jagged edges in Kurtág’s Hommage à R Sch when viola and clarinet snarled against Ólafsson’s silken piano. There was the fierce, impassioned opening of Mark Simpson ’s Hommage à Kurtág. And there was the monumental Old Testament brass that boomed fleetingly across Kurtág’s … quasi una fantasia … Op 27 No 1 before dropping away to unveil a delicate skein of string harmonics. Otherwise, this programme revelled in Kurtág’s many shades of pianissimo. Nine of his works – none lasting more than 10 minutes, most much shorter – were interspersed by comparably crystalline pieces by others (Schumann, Simpson, Webern, Bach). Ólafsson featured in most. Often bent deeply over the keyboard, he handled every barely audible note as if priceless. Continue reading...